


Fall

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Bullying, Canon Era, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-04
Updated: 2013-01-04
Packaged: 2019-09-27 20:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17169254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Jack and Katherine take care of Crutchie after he falls from a tree.





	Fall

“What is it you said you wanted?” sneered the biggest of the three boys who had cornered Crutchie for taking “their” selling spot in central park. The boy waved Crutchie’s crutch right in front of his nose, cackling. Crutchie made a lunge for it, but only ended up falling to his knees on the grass. This only made the boys laugh harder. 

Crutchie bit his lip and balled up his fists. This wasn’t supposed to be happening today. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, it was the first real day of spring, and he’d been excited to come here. These boys, however, seemed to take more pleasure in torturing others than in the warm air and newly blooming flowers. They kept asking over and over again what it was he wanted, circling like jackals. They knew very well what he wanted. 

“Give it back fellas,” Crutchie tried, already suspecting that it was a hopeless case. He was right. One of the boys tossed the Crutch high above him. Had Crutchie been standing he might have been able to reach it. As things were, he made a futile grab at the air as his crutch soared above him and lodged itself in the branches of a nearby tree. 

“There you are,” the big boy said. “If you want it go and get it.” 

“Yeah,” sneered one of the other boys. “Go ahead. We ain’t gonna stop you.” 

At least the boys didn’t stay to watch his struggle. They snickered as they walked away, the shortest one of them shouldering Crutchie’s papers as he went. 

“Theives!” Crutchie called after him, but the boys didn’t seem to hear. He balled up his fists and swallowed several times. He wouldn’t cry. He could take care of himself. It took a lot to make him mad, but these boys… they were assholes and that was the end of it. What really bothered him, though, was that plenty of people had walked past and seen what was happening, and instead of stopping to help, they’d just gone along enjoying the sunshine as if he wasn’t there. Well, he’d be damned if he asked any of them for help now. 

Crutchie moved a couple of feet on his hands and knees over to the tree, and used the trunk of it to support himself as he stood up. He looked it up and down. His crutch wasn’t so very high, and the tree had lots of low, strong looking branches. If he were somebody else… if he were Jack, or Davey or just about anybody other than himself he’d be able to climb it in an instant. Even Katherine… she was a lady and didn’t make a habit of climbing trees, but he was sure if Katherine were here she’d try and climb it for him, no matter what it did to her skirts or her reputation. That’s because his friends were good people. They’d climb the tree even for somebody who wasn’t him, and if they saw some kid being bullied in the park, even a complete stranger, they’d step in and stop it if they could. 

His friends were good people. The best people. But Crutchie’s friends weren’t here right now, and it looked like he was going to have to climb that tree by himself. Maybe he’d be able to do it. His arms were strong. He’d climbed up and down the ladder to the lodging house roof before. It’d been slow and difficult, but he’d managed. A tree wasn’t so very different than a ladder, after all. Maybe he’d be able to climb it if he really tried.

Crutchie gripped onto the first branch, pulling hard and pushing his good foot in against a knot in the wood. Somehow he managed to fling himself upwards and onto the branch. It shook under his weight, and Crutchie had to grasp onto the branch above it to keep from toppling to the ground. For a moment he panicked, absolutely certain he was going to fall, but then he managed to steady himself. He looked down at the grass above him, and the freshly budding leaves above. He laughed. He was in a tree! He was really climbing it! He couldn’t believe that he was doing this and that it was actually working. 

Mounting the second branch was every bit as difficult and every bit as successful as the first had been. Though Crutchie was still angry that those boys had done this to him, he was starting to feel other things too… things like triumph and hope. Maybe he would just make it. He wondered how he’d ever get the other guys to believe him when he told them that he, Crutchie, was such an expert at tree climbing that he could do it with only one functional leg.

The third branch trembled as the other two had. Crutchie had just about reached his prize. He leaned forward. He barely had time to register the sickening sound of the branch cracking before he went tumbling down to the ground. 

—————

“What was he thinking?” Jack waved his hands in the air as he paced around the room. He’d already asked this same question about eight times, but Katherine remained patient with him. This was Crutchie after all. Jack worried about him, and the idea of Crutchie being hurt, even by himself, made Jack angry, more often than not. Or… maybe angery wasn’t quite the right word. It made him frustrated, because it wasn’t right, and Jack was quick to feel and respond to any sort of injustice. 

Nonetheless, part of Katherine was glad that Crutchie was still fast asleep on the couch they’d laid him out on after carrying him back to their home and couldn’t hear Jack go on. 

“Shh!” Katherine warned. “He must have had his reasons.” She pursed her lips, brushing Crutchie’s hair off of his forehead. “Not that I’m disinclined to agree with you that he shouldn’t have been up there, but I’m sure he had his reasons.” 

Katherine stood up from where she’d been kneeling, and stopped briefly to squeeze Jack’s shoulder as she went into the kitchen to get some water. She wished she knew more about first aid. Her sisters had managed to get their share of scrapes and scratches, of course, but the share of scrapes and scratches allotted even to very young ladies was relatively small. Out of her family Katherine had been the most accident prone, and when one was getting stitches or being treated for a mild concussion, it was difficult to pay attention with a clear enough head to how the treatment was being accomplished.

When Katherine got back to the living room, Jack was bent over Crutchie, his fingers running over him in a careful examination. 

“Nothing’s broken,” Jack announced. “Least not his arms and legs or neck.” 

“How can you tell that?” 

“Dunno. Just know what a broken bone feels like. The boys’ve gotten them sometimes, when they don’t keep their stupid asses out of trouble.” 

“Or when people don’t make trouble for them,” Katherine reminded Jack.

“Yeah,” Jack said with a sigh. 

Katherine took out a cloth, and started to wipe the blood and dirt off of Crutchie’s left hand. It was hard to tell in what other ways he’d been injured, but the skin had been scraped off his hands, maybe from trying to hold onto the tree as he slid down. Jack followed her lead, taking Crutchie’s other hand in his, and starting to gently clean it up. Katherine only wished there were more that they could do. Crutchie’s eyes were closed, and he was breathing calmly and evenly as if he was asleep. Jack said his pulse was good. Katherine still wondered if she ought to go for a doctor. Jack would never think of something sensible like just going for a doctor if one of them was hurt, if only because he’d spent most of his life living in a world where sensible things like doctors hardly existed. There were plenty of lovely and admirable things in Jack’s world, as Katherine was quickly discovering, but a decided lack of sensible things. The way that the newsies relied on each other above all else was one of the best and worst things about it. 

————

Crutchie blinked, and kind of groaned. He opened his eyes, and closed them again, the room and faces around them suddenly becoming clear. 

The first thing that Crutchie was able to see were the faces of Jack and Katherine bent over him, their cheeks nearly touching as they each rubbed something wet and cold over his hands. It was a good thing to wake up to, even if the cold water stung a little bit on his wounds. The two of them had a way of looking like angels together…all glowy and nice… or maybe it was the way they light shined down from above them and the way that Crutchie’s head was throbbing. 

“Some guys took my crutch,” Crutchie hastened to explain. “Sure is good to see you two.” 

“It’s great to have you awake,” Jack said, squeezing his shoulder. 

“Where are you hurt?” Katherine asked. 

“Dunno.” Crutchie moved his shoulders experimentally. When it seemed like they were in working order, he pushed himself to sit up. 

“Hey, hey, not so fast.” Jack said, pushing him right back down again. 

“Guess ain’t so badly hurt,” Crutchie said. He let Jack push him down anyway. He was still kind of woozy feeling, but at least everything was in one piece and moving the way it should. 

“That’s good,” Jack said. “It’s real good. You still better stay here for the night, though. Get looked after.” 

“Tell us about your adventures,” Katherine added in a tone that made Crutchie smile. 

“You two sure about that?” Crutchie asked. 

“’Course," said Jack.

“We’re family,” said Katherine. “That’s what family is for, isn’t it?”


End file.
